SOASIS....On the move

Volume 20, Number 2

&nbsp

June, 1999

SOASIS.... on the move: Newsletter of
the Southern Ohio Chapter, Association for American Science Volume
20, Number 2, June 1999

Contents: Message from the Chair
Election Results - Board Members for 1999/2000 Members in the News
MEMALERT Member Profile - Marjo Hettick Maxwell van Patten Summary
of SOASIS/I-ASIS program March 24, 1999 Summary of SOASIS program May 13,
1999 Treasurer's Report SOASIS Board Members Contact List

As always, there are exciting
things happening for SOASIS! A new board was elected in April to begin
their terms in October 1999. Congratulations to Ted Morris, Chair-Elect; Megan
Schenk, Treasurer; Angela Myatt, Secretary; Yvonne Davis, Chapter Assembly
Representative; and John Tebo, Alternate Chapter Assembly Representative!
Lexis-Nexis hosted a SOASIS program on XML in May. The speaker, Don
Steiner, gave an excellent presentation and many attendees enjoyed a nice dinner
afterwards. Finally, SOASIS has gained 2 new members, Suzie Allard and
Rosemary Ashton. Welcome! We look forward to seeing you at the next
meeting.

Congratulations to our new
SOASIS Executive Board members! The SOASIS Nominations & Elections
Committee sincerely appreciates the willingness of the new officers to offer
their time and effort to our Chapter.

Academic Information Technology
& Libraries was the recent recipient of a contract to work on the consumer
health database project, Medlineplus, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus.
The project entails combing government sites and voluntary organizations for
consumer health information on particular topics and creating a record of those
links. Participants in the project are Leslie Schick, Associate Director; Sharon
Bressert, Head of Cataloging and Collection Services; Edith Starbuck,
Information Services Librarian; and Akram Pari, Lloyd Library Assistant
Librarian/Cataloger.

SOASIS Welcomes New Members: Susie L. Allard
and Rosemary Ashton, both students at SLIS, University of Kentucky.

The
Washington-Centerville Public Library (where Victoria Whipple, Chair of SOASIS,
works, and the library director is SOASIS member Cynthia Klinck) was ranked #2
in the nation for Public Libraries serving communities of 10,000-99,999 as
reported in the January issue of American Libraries.

During the recent ASIS
mid-year meeting in Pasadena, I had the opportunity to initiate a national ASIS
project on behalf of our Chapter. It goes under the name of MEMALERT, and it is
being introduced as "MEMALERT, a Southern Ohio Chapter Initiative."

Simply put, MEMALERT is a 'new-member alerting service' to ASIS members,
chapters, and SIGs. It cuts down significantly the time of new-member
notification. MEMALERT is designed to address such issues as prompt
new-member notification, member involvement in ASIS grassroots activities,
leadership development in chapters and SIGs, and member retention.

The
ASIS Chapter Assembly Director and Deputy, the SIG Cabinet Director and Deputy,
the Executive Director, and the Manager of ASIS Membership Services have
endorsed MEMALERT.

Here how MEMALERT works. Once a week, I receive
an electronic report from ASIS headquarters on all new members who joined ASIS
during the previous week. I reformat the report to make it more concise
and more readable, and notify the new members and their corresponding
chapters and SIGs. That process is completed within 24 hours. A
message of "Welcome"--with chapter and SIG contacts--is sent to the
new members. A separate notification is sent to the chairpersons of those
chapters and SIGs that had new members, asking them to welcome and encourage
their new members to participate in chapter and SIG activities.

In view
of a recent replacement in ASIS Headquarters staff, I had expected MEMALERT to
start in July or August. To its credit, ASIS headquarters responded
promptly, and I have received the first report. So, I need to act on this
quickly.

In my view, this is a great opportunity for SOASIS to serve
ASIS in a unique capacity and get national recognition.

Though I'm
personally committed to this project, and can handle it entirely on my own, I
would prefer to have the involvement of some of our Chapter's members.
This is an opportunity for any of our members to get some visibility at the ASIS
national level.

Toward that end, I'm sending out a call for
volunteers. The amount of time it takes to process a weekly new member
report is not that much, especially when a group is involved. But the
turn-around time needs to be fast to ensure MEMALERT's reliability.

Please contact me if you need additional information about MEMALERT or
if you wish to join the MEMALERT Task Force.

She
stands tall, tall above any crowd. And every cell of her body oozes pure
talent. That's how talented she is. She is a first born, a last
born, an only child who was destined to lead. She is Marjo M. van Patten,
a twenty-year SOASIS member extraordinaire.

Marjo has served SOASIS in
many capacities, including that of secretary and chapter chair-elect. She
is the designer of chapter award certificates and the coveted SOASIS coffee
mug--a collector's item. SOASIS has honored Marjo with its prestigious John
Kahles Membership Award and the Heberle Eyles Leadership Award.

By any
standards, Marjo is biiiiiiig, in many ways. Big as the heart of
Texas. And she hails from the small Texas town of Phillips, a town of five
thousand people who lived in little cookie-cutter houses, where most town
residents worked for the Phillips Petroleum Company. The town's big
refinery remains but the town is long gone, leaving its ghost behind, 42 miles
northeast of Amarillo.

As they say, it's all in the genes.
Talented parents in the arts and sciences produce a very talented offspring.

Mom, who earned her MS degree in dress design, was well known for
designs based on native Mexican costumes. And later she was widely known
as a malacologist--a tongue twister, for a person who studies mollusks.
Mom's collection of several hundred thousand sea shells is now part of the
zoological trove at Oklahoma State University.

Dad was a chemical
engineer whose job took the family to Mexico City. Photography was his
avocation. His national award-winning photographs of Chichen Itza are in
the collection at the Barker Texas History Center at the University of
Texas. And, if by chance, you are curious to know how Marjo looked as a
child, go the Barker Texas History Center and you'll find stunning photographs
of her on display amid pictorials of Mexican jungles. That's how Marjo
became a part of Texas lore and history.

But you don't have to travel
all the way to Texas to find out what Marjo was like as a child. In grade
school, she was taller than most kids, talked a bit too much, and was a
straight-A student who loved music. She started taking piano lessons early
on and, by the time she entered fifth grade, she added alto saxophone, soon
playing for the school's marching and concert bands.

At Oklahoma
State University, Marjo majored in the sciences, earning a BS degree in
Zoology/Wildlife Management and an MS in Natural Sciences. At OSU she
played alto sax in the marching band and contrabass clarinet for the concert
band and the University Wind ensemble--the only non-music major in the
university's wind ensemble.

Like many of her contemporaries, Marjo got
married soon after college graduation. She married Keith Maxwell, a
physicist working for a defense contractor, a job which necessitated a series of
relocations for the couple: Lived in St. Charles, MO, where first son
Colin, was born; in Los Angeles, where Marjo earned an MSLS degree at the
University of Southern California; in Pittsfield, MA, where second son, Kevin,
was born; and in Dayton, Ohio, the final destination of a nomadic life that also
brought an end to a nineteen-year old marriage.

Yet, there were many
joyful years while the children were growing up. Colin was a precocious child
whose ear for the human voice challenged the very best. What other tiny
tot could clearly pronounce the polysyllabic phrase, "roseate
spoonbill"? Even some ornithologists have a problem pronouncing
it. Kevin, on the other hand, was a "me, too" child, never being
sure how many "nas" were in the word "bananas."

Leave it to Marjo to instill the love of music deep in the heart of her
children. Colin had an affinity for the piano, and Kevin picked up the
trombone, just to shed his "me, too" image. Colin and Kevin were
fierce musical competitors, each practicing on their own, vying for individual
attention from an appreciative audience. One day, a wise music teacher
called upon the two brothers to perform a duet. The sounds emanating from
two divergent musical instruments blended into a flowing melody. Competition
ceased and harmony prevailed thanks to their love of music, a love that is
Marjo's legacy to her children.

It would be awfully hard to talk to
Marjo for a few minutes and not perceive her extensive knowledge of our field
and her high sense of professionalism. She is truly a consummate
information professional whose breadth and depth of knowledge cover the gamut of
library and information science and technology.

Perhaps that is due to
an illustrious and diverse career that spans more than three decades:
Laboratory Instructor (botany and zoology) at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy;
Reference Assistant at the Public Library in St.Charles, MO; Head Librarian at
the Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, MA; Reference Librarian at Wright
State University and at the University of Dayton; Information Consultant and
Contractor at Wright Patterson Air Force Base; Senior Functional Analyst at
Litton/PRC, Inc.; and currently she is Technical Information Specialist at the
University of Dayton Research Institute.

Of all the exciting positions
she has held, the one at Wright Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) would
undoubtedly rank among the best, for that's where Marjo first met Robert E. van
Patten (Van), a Ph.D. engineer and Branch Chief of the Human Centrifuge
Program. Call it fate. Marjo's office was next to the mailboxes
where employees went to pick up their daily mail. And out of all her
fellow employees who passed by daily, it was Van with his kindness, felicity,
and charm that fascinated Marjo. Call it centrifugal force. Marjo and Van
got married in 1987.

Van is retired now and busier than ever,
doing the things he always wanted to do but never had time for them. He
founded a War of 1812 re-enactment group, Steele's Rifles. He has learned
to play alto recorder, to draw and paint, and has become a community activist.

While the van Pattens have plenty to do at home--gardening some five
hilly acres and building a water feature--they also like to travel. Name a
place and they've probably been there: the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, England,
Scotland, Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, Holland, Peru (the magical, majestic,
mythical Macchu Picchu, lost city of the Incas), Ecuador, Galapagos Islands, and
several Caribbean islands. They've sailed the Caribbean, Lake Michigan
twice, and Penobscot Bay, Maine. They've traveled much of the US in an RV or
tent camping. Two years ago, they made a four-week loop of Vancouver and,
this year, they are planning a tent camping trip along the St. Lawrence Seaway
up to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Also, they plan to visit Spain
and Portugal.

Though she was raised as a Southern Baptist, Marjo joined
the Episcopal Church while in college. Her current church activities for
St. George's Episcopal Church include: Lay Reader, Lay Eucharistic Minister,
Deanery Representative, Stephen Leader, and calligrapher. Once a month, for the
healing service, she plays unaccompanied recorder.

A founding member of
Musici Anonymi, a consort, Marjo has played tenor recorder with this mostly
early music group for 10 years. The group is active and well known in the
area.

Immersed in classical music, never without a book (most recent,
Turtletaub's "Justinian"), subscriber to Wright State University
Theater, an occasional movie ("Life Is Beautiful"), more lessons in
calligraphy, playing the recorder--and who knows what else--and extensive travel
spell nothing but F-U-N. And that describes, in a nutshell, Marjo's
philosophy: "If you aren't having any fun, what's the point?"

And fun she has, enjoying fully whatever she does. But it's the
recipients of Marjo's artistic creations who enjoy her gifts and appreciate her
talents even more. To them, Marjo is not just another artisan. She
is a Renaissance figure living in an MTV world. She's rare and she's
precious. She is Renaissance.

Marjo says she plans to
retire this year or next. To that, we say, "No!"
Emphatically. The profession still needs its role model. And SOASIS
direly needs Marjo's leadership, energy, enthusiasm, and talent. There is
only one Marjo, and she belongs to SOASIS, forever!

Some 20 members of the Indiana and Southern Ohio chapters of ASIS heard
a presentation on knowledge management and its uses March 24th at a special
joint meeting in Cincinnati. Stu Coleman, Principal Consultant at
NCR, specializing in enterprise architecture and integration management, spoke
on "Knowledge Management: Leveraging Intellectual Capital for Business
Benefit."

After a few introductory words about NCR, Coleman
set about defining knowledge management (KM). Many businesses and
organizations have defined it in different ways; one of the best summaries, he
said, comes from the American Productivity & Quality Center, which says that
knowledge management features "systematic approaches to find, understand,
share and use knowledge to create value." It also includes efforts
"to help information and knowledge flow to the right people at the right
time so they can act more efficiently and effectively."

It's
easier to sell knowledge management to a business's leaders, he said, when they
understand its value. A business can achieve improved margin and profit,
better time to market, and better utilization of its practitioners, along with
decreased risk, support costs, rediscovery/reinvention and cycle time. The
business's customers can see better response time and improvements in quality
and consistency. At Ernst & Young, for example, Coleman said revenue
is growing at twice the rate of the overall market thanks to better use of
knowledge management. It's possible to do the same tasks for less money using
knowledge management.

Pillsbury represents one of the great
knowledge management success stories. Since the corporation launched a KM
program in 1996, organizational training costs have been reduced by 50%, the
time to approve product labels has fallen by 80% and the time to approve new
ingredients has declined by 95%. Pillsbury established online access to an
"organizational knowledge encyclopedia" to permit these improvements.
One of the reasons for Pillsbury's success, he said, lies in its approach to
corporate culture. In many businesses, people tend to jealously guard
information as a tool for power. At Pillsbury, the managers provide
incentives for people to encapsulate knowledge. Employees are rewarded
when others use their knowledge. The three elements of knowledge
management practice are process, tools and culture, and Pillsbury uses them all.

Coleman pointed out we're still in the early development of KM, so some
of the principles for its successful implementation haven't been worked
out. One critical issue is that of measurement. Without measurement,
it's impossible to determine whether a KM program is effective. It would
be good, for example, to determine how many times a particular piece of
knowledge is used, and how often it was effective.

The metadata
describing the properties of digitized documents represents another key element
of knowledge management. At NCR, Coleman said, the metadata structure is
simple; it describes when a document was produced, who produced it, the problems
the document addresses, and other information. Current metadata structures
are weak, he said. NCR is working on improvements.

Although
there are a number of software tools on the market, Coleman said, very few
commercial offerings were specifically designed for knowledge management.
Most are a collection of common technologies. He mentioned Lotus Notes,
SolutionBuilder, Domino, Variety, GrapeVINE/Collabra, Excalibur, Cognos/Paradis,
Clementine and GroupLens as packages that can be used for KM. In addition,
content-sensitive subscription servers such as Pointcast, Wayfarer, Diffusion
and BackWeb have KM uses.

How can you implement knowledge
management in your own shop? Coleman said we "must change the way we
think and the way we manage people." Managers must make knowledge
acquisition transparent to the provider, by building it into routine tasks and
providing feedback and measures for acquisition. Then, managers need to
reward the sharing of that knowledge by implementing incentives to share.
It's good to provide feedback when someone's piece of knowledge is used,
too. At the same time, managers need to educate their workforce on the
value of knowledge management by pointing out its potential value for executives
and managers and addressing the "what's in it for me?" questions of
individual workers. The tracking and reporting of effective measures is
critical, too.

During the question-and-answer session, one
audience member asked for suggestions on bringing together knowledge from
systems that don't have a lot in common. How can you share information
across incompatible systems? Coleman responded that the missing element is
information architecture. We need to establish relationships among the
various information items. It's not easy to resolve the differences, but
it must be done.

Another person asked how the value of a piece of
knowledge is determined. Coleman said some places do it with peer review - each
person using a piece of knowledge is required to note their use.

Before Coleman's presentation, former ASIS presidents Jim Cretsos, Chuck
Davis and Ralf Shaw, along with former ASIS Director-at-Large Steve Hardin,
spoke briefly about their involvement in the Society, and the benefits they
receive from membership. There was a general feeling that this joint
meeting worked well, and that more joint programs could be planned for the
future.

Don Steiner of Lexis-Nexis gave an interesting and informative program
on XML--eXtensible Markup Language--to a group of about 30 people on Thursday
May 13.

Mr. Steiner began with a general explanation of markup
languages, then gave a little more detail on SGML (Standard Generalized Markup
Language), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), and then showed how XML fit into
the whole markup language puzzle. From there, he went on to detail steps
required in writing an XML document. As with other markup languages, there
are many standards involved in writing an XML document. Mr. Steiner
explained in detail several standards and what their status is as far as being
recommended, draft, or proposed standards. Because XML was designed for
Web use, standardization is not as stringent as SGML, for example, because there
must be flexibility to move forward in creation of web documents and standards.

Finally, Mr. Steiner discussed several XML applications and their usage,
and showed us how Lexis-Nexis plans to use XML in some of its web-based
products. It was an excellent program that left people hungry for more
knowledge on the topic--and the bibliography and webliography that were included
in the packet will allow those people to pursue further knowledge of XML.

Thanks to Don Steiner for an excellent presentation, Lexis-Nexis for its
generosity providing meeting space and refreshments, and Patricia Carter who
pulled the whole program together!